Native American Indian and Alaskan Native Heritage Month

November is recognized in North America as Native American Indian and Alaskan Native Heritage Month. Recognition is the first small, but essential step that people of privilege and power, achieved through colonization and enslavement, must take to ever achieve any type of reconciliation.

In 2018, Out for Undergrad began the intentional practice of Native People and Land Acknowledgement at our gatherings. This is one of the ways we are working to understand and achieve full inclusion as a community.

This acknowledgement is a way that we insert an awareness of Indigenous presence and land rights in our everyday life and recognize the history of colonialism and a need for change in our settler colonial societies.

We all have a responsibility to consider what it means to acknowledge the history and legacy of colonialism.

What are some of the privileges settlers enjoy today because of colonialism?

How can individuals develop relationships with peoples whose territory they are living on in the contemporary geopolitical landscape?

What are we doing beyond acknowledging the territory where we live, work, or hold our events?

As Chelsea Vowel, a Métis woman from the Plains Cree speaking community of Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta, writes:

“If we think of territorial acknowledgments as sites of potential disruption, they can be transformative acts that to some extent undo Indigenous erasure. I believe this is true as long as these acknowledgments discomfit both those speaking and hearing the words. The fact of Indigenous presence should force non-Indigenous peoples to confront their own place on these lands.” — Chelsea Vowel, Métis, Beyond Territorial Acknowledgements

This is also a great month to start an intentional practice of reading native authors, learning about Native history, and building an awareness of the influence of these cultures on all that surrounds us.

This month raises some hopeful questions:

What can we learn from the way our thinking and talking about Native cultures has changed and evolved over time?

Can those lessons be applied to the elevation of other people in marginalized positions?

As a nation in conversation about inclusion, the United States has begun to take the following steps:

1. Consciously Broadening Historical Perspectives

Seven states have officially stopped celebrating the holiday known for 82 years as “Columbus Day” (Vermont, South Dakota, Maine, Oregon, Alaska, New Mexico, Hawaii) and most now celebrate “Indigenous People’s Day” on that day instead. Many more states have bills in process to follow suit.
(Pew: More States Say Goodbye to Columbus Day)

Though I happen not to live in one of those states, I can attest that the next generation is being given greater perspective than in the past when it comes to marginalized voices.

2. Recognizing Current Rights and Freedoms

Today, the U.S. Government officially confers federal recognition to 573 Native American and Alaskan Native tribes in the United States. That represents a high level of diversity among those tribes that is not widely known or celebrated, but it is a powerful thing to understand when we talk about representation and inclusion on a national level.
(Federal Archives: Oregon Treaty)

Though true participation in government had been long suppressed, efforts to support the voting rights of the members of those communities are underway in the form of bills like the Native American Voting Act, currently in Congress:
(ASU: Little-Known Snyder Act)

In 2018, Democrats Sharice Davids of Kansas and Deb Haaland of New Mexico made history when they became the first Native American women ever elected to Congress. In her victory speech, Haaland said: “Seventy years ago, Native Americans right here in New Mexico couldn’t vote,” she said. “I want to tell everyone in this room, people who have been under attack who deserve never to be erased: I see you, I’m listening.”
(Washington Post: Two Native American Women Are Headed to Congress)

3. Understanding That Much More Must Be Done

While progress is slowly being made toward the inclusion of Native populations, there remains a vast amount of work to be done. As an example, to ensure that voices are fully heard, languages need more attention; tribal languages have long been at risk of extinction. We can be inspired by, and replicate, current work to reverse that trend:
(NPR: Oklahoma Charter School)

In our work at O4U, we’ve seen that Native students and employees often find their workplace experience reflected in the larger pattern of cultural erasure.

As part of our commitment to increase participation of native students in O4U, in 2018. we worked with Indigenous Education and the Cobell Foundation to share information about O4U Conferences with their list of undergraduates who are enrolled members of a US Federally-Recognized Tribe, enrolled in full-time study and degree-seeking. We also now have direct outreach to Tribal Colleges. Small steps, but essential.

Thank you to our volunteers and sponsors who join us in these practices of acknowledgement and outreach.

Cindi Love
Executive Director
Out for Undergrad
https://cobellscholar.org

*2019 IBIS Consulting Group, Inc.